South Sudan: Government urges Parliament to amend electoral law

The South Sudanese government called on Parliament on Sunday, September 13, to adopt amendments to the National Election Act to secure the legal framework for the general elections scheduled for December 22, 2026. Government spokesperson Ateny Wek Ateny stated that the legislation must clarify the organization of constituencies ahead of the vote.

According to Ateny Wek Ateny, the executive aims to maintain the 102 geographical constituencies established during the 2010 elections. The remaining seats should be allocated through party lists and quotas designated for women, youth, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

The National Election Commission had already officially declared these 102 constituencies in December 2025, distributed among the ten states and three administrative areas of the country. It explained that the use of the 2010 delineation stemmed from the lack of a new national census and the decision to separate the election from the constitutional process and the census.

The legislative debate comes as electoral preparations continue in the states. In early September, the Electoral Commission initiated the training of local electoral committees, which are responsible for preparing voter registration, a process already underway in Western Equatoria.

The electoral timeline remains politically sensitive. The government recently challenged the United Nations Human Rights Commission’s warnings regarding the election preparations while reaffirming its commitment to hold the elections in December. Juba rejected these criticisms on September 11.

As of September 2, the National Election Commission indicated that voter registration had not yet begun and that no electoral register had been established. It announced a manual, in-person, paper-based registration process nationwide, prior to data entry into its computer systems.